Cosmos flowers, reflections, electrical danger

Downtown Montreal near the elevated rail line there are landscaped features including cosmos flowers and new trees. On the left, you see part of a glass condo, these buildings dominate the landscape now. Cosmos flowers are light pink, magenta, and dark magenta.  

Cosmos flowers downtown, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

On Stanley street there are plenty of shops with glass-facades. This one had an angled window at sidewalk level, with upright windows on top. Both sets of windows were reflecting the scene from across the street. With everything on perspective, it was key to get the lines correct. I replaced some rooftop graffiti with my initials in the reflection, and signed bottom left with yellow ochre. 

Double reflection angle, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

Still on Stanley street, I captured more reflections in windows, showing the fire escape from across the street. Brunch was going on at street level, and there was some cool music playing. 

Reflection alley, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

Down on st Patrick street I found some new subject material including this scene of an electrical station. A sturdy looking fence had an electrocution warning sign that looked genuinely terrifying. The electrical structure in the background was adorned with an abundance of cylinders, wires and strange shapes. 

Electrical risk, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

This old warehouse with pale green siding has seen better days. Plastered with graffiti, it also smelled of water rot. I would have done more of the location, there is a large parking lot here with public access, its in between Lachine canal and autoroute 15, a hard place to get to by bike. 

Warehouse initials, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Big sun Montréal summer

Finally we had a decent Montréal summer's day, close to 30℃ and a blue sky most of the morning. Here, I am looking up at the condos and sun, standing on Stanley street downtown. I painted the sun with big yellow, orange, magenta and blue rings, then filled in some buildings on an upwards -looking persepective. 

Big sun Montréal summer, watercolour 8 x 11" cold press, July 2026

Getting back to Dorchester square, here is another painting of the white umbrella-parasol with green furniture, and brilliant red geraniums around the monument. I changed the monument panel to my initials and self-portrait. The geraniums were a little less intense this time, some had dried and turned a neat dark red shade. The earlier painting is here. 

Parasol green chairs red geraniums, watercolour 8 x 11" cold press, July 2026

 

Finding some new subject material on st Patrick street, here is an auto shop with a sign L'Artiste (The Artist). There was what appeared to be a Bat-mobile car in progress sitting out front. 

Auto Shop L'Artiste, watercolour 8 x 11" cold press, July 2026

 

Surreal Pizza Shop (sunset corner)

Riding my bike out to the pizza shop, and I saw a tangerine sun setting on the corner. It was what I saw and it was not what I saw. I painted  it and I did not paint it. In fact, surrealism was real, at least partly. Headlights helped the cars find their way, but the pizza took a little while longer than expected. Had I ordered pizza than maybe I would have thought about eating it. Order now from PJD's surreal pizza shop in Montreal.  

Surreal Pizza Shop (sunset corner), watercolour 8 x 10" cold press, July 2026

Corner eats, twilight, gas station night

Here is a twilight painting done on location in ville st Pierre, the corner restaurant is actually a Boustan's Lebanese joint. In the interior, I replicated Edward Hopper's famous Nighthawks painting with four figures in roughly the same positions. The rest of the scene shows cars, red brick buildings, and the gas station see off to the left. 

Corner eats twilight, watercolour 8 x 11" cold press, July 2026

 

Another classic restaurant, La Belle Province with the highway overpasses in the background, and a half moon hanging low in the sky. The moon was much higher than this, but I pulled it into the scene using my artistic license! The chef came out and took a look on a smoke break. 

Half moon over La Belle Province, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

The bright lamps of the highway were dancing in the sky along with the half moon. Below, some of the shops on st Jacques street, complete with some PJD26 graffiti. The corner of La Belle Province is seen on the lower left of the scene. 

Moon lamps over highway, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

Lastly, I completed this painting of the ESSO gas station sign, changed to PJD, along with a green traffic light. It was a tough scene to complete on location and I was tired, but finished the sky strong with a number 2 brush and the illusion came together nicely. Punk rock paintings!

Gas station sign lights, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

Sunset trees flowers Lachine canal

With the sunset down at Lachine canal came pink cotton candy clouds against a pale blue sky. In the foreground, a grassy field was full of yellow buttercups, illuminated by setting sunlight. 

Pink sky yellow buttercups, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

In the other direction, next to the canal, were these three trees, a mix of olive green and yellow-orange. Using a variety of brush techniques helped build up the complex tree textures. Yellow flowers were painted over the green grass with opaque bismuth vanadate yellow (PY184).

Three trees near canal, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

This large tree had a neat pastel colour against the pastel sky. Some bright yellow grass and a winding bike path completed the scene. 

Pastel tree sundown, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

Since I am painting on the backs of old paintings, this one had a doodle based on an early abstract painting I did in 1999 called sun earth moon. Incorporating the doodle into a sunset scene created an interesting surrealistic effect.  

Sunset earth moon, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

Views at Coffee park, Westehaven neighborhood

With rain on tap I stayed close to home after work and made a few paintings, including this one of an oncoming commuter train. I had to paint fast! Just kidding, I was sitting in coffee park at a picnic table thinking about how dull the scene was, then decided to re-imagine the perspective to make it more exciting. 

Oncoming commuter train, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

At the end of Elmhurst, corner of st Jacques, there is a small Dépanneur called Saga, with an oversized sign. I composed the scene without any road or sidewalk, so as to focus on the sign and perspective of the condo building. 

Dépanneur Saga sign, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

Across the street at the Parmalat factory there are shiny milk trucks parked, getting loaded up. This factory has an alarm siren system, if we hear it blare in NDG we are supposed to close the windows. Who knew milk was so dangerous?

Milk truck rear, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

 

The old Motel st Jacques is all boarded up and covered in graffiti. Construction of a nearby condo removed the street access and front reception, so just the boarded up rooms remain. It advertised having a TV, which gives you an indication of how old this motel was. 

Motel PJD26, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026

Across the street still on st Jacques, this condo had burned out at the rear, causing a tree to get scorched, and the fire escape to twist into a gnarled metal sculpture. As I stood painting, the whole thing smelled musty, it must have terrible water damage inside too. 

Burned condo rear, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, July 2026 

Looking Back: London Ontario, shadow, sunset, trees

Here are some more of the old collection from my age of early 20's. I date them as 2000 and x (200x) because I don't have records of when they were done actually, although the style give clues. This one was a later piece, it shows my shadow stretching down a hill near a Thames river tributary, with some geese off in the distance. I used to paint sitting down in a small camping chair, so you see that here in the shadow. 

Geese my shadow, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

I recognize this as the Thames river closer to downtown where they built a steep concrete embankment to prevent flooding. Getting an effect like this was a big challenge back then, it looks like I applied a cerulean blue and rose madder genuine mix in the sky, blotted it out with a tissue or brush, then applied a pink wash over top, likely rose red (PV19) which I had in my palette. For a recent painting that is similar see the auto shop sunset. 

Pink clouds near Thames, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

There were plenty of birch trees to paint, this one on a sunny day shows a nice blue shadow effect and autumn colours in the background. I managed to capture the light reflecting in the shadows of the tree trunks, creating a glow-effect. 

Birch tree park path, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

 

Its rare I paint scenes of art installations, I did one recently of the art installations near Fort street.  In the above painting, its downtown London Ontario, near a public building, I liked the blue shadow and fleshy pink tones. The hand railing with shadow was a nice touch. You can see I signed the paintings instead of initialing as I do recently. You can see a summary of how my signing evolved over time in this blog. 

Pink sculptures, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x

 

It was obliged to post this painting, on the back I wrote something to the effect that it was extremely *** cold today! I recall sitting in the little camping chair freezing my rear off to get it done, and without salt at the time, I added alcohol. It worked out okay, this was done on part of University of Western campus, near Brescia college. 

Winter tree cold day, watercolour 5 x 7" cold press, 200x